Cons

Bottom Line

The metal LG V20 phablet is overflowing with features that will appeal to audiophiles, photographers, and average Android users alike.

27 Oct 2016Ajay Kumar

Think of the LG V20 as the result of combining the company's unique V10 with design cues from the newer G5. In short, you get a 5.7-inch metal Android phone with a "secondary" display, two rear cameras, and a host of killer features for audiophiles and photographers. You also get one of the first phones to ship with Android 7.0 Nougat, and one of the few flagships to feature a removable battery. Factor in a durable build, top-notch hardware, and terrific camera performance, and the V20 is one of the best big Android phones you can buy right now. Though as much as we love it, it doesn't quite better the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, which remains our Editors' Choice.

Pricing, Design, and Features

The V20's price varies depending on carrier, but it's largely comparable with other high-end flagships on the market. The least expensive place you'll find it is on Verizon, for $672. T-Mobile sells the phone for $769.99, while picking it up on Sprint will run you a bit more at $792. AT&T is the most expensive carrier to buy from, at $829.99. An unlocked version will be available in November for $799.99.

In broad strokes, the V20 looks like a pumped up G5. The two phones have the same button layout and dual-camera setup on the back, but there are some key differences that make the V20 a bit more aesthetically pleasing. For one, the size of the bottom lip below the display has been reduced, leaving less empty space. The sides are also curved a bit more, making it easier to grip than the more angular G5.

As for the buttons and ports, you'll find a volume rocker on the left, a departure from the back buttons on the V10. The bottom houses a 3.5mm headphone jack, speaker, and USB-C charging port. The back has a fairly responsive home button-fingerprint scanner. The top has an IR blaster, which allows you to control TVs, air conditioners, and other compatible devices.

The phone is also more durable than the G5 or the V10. Its metal body (available in gray, pink, or silver) uses the same kind of aluminum used in airplanes. It can't fly, but it is MIL-STD-810G transit drop compliant, meaning it can withstand drops onto hard surfaces. It withstood several drops onto the rubberized floor at PC Labs with no visible damage aside from the battery cover popping off. The trade-off is that it's not waterproof like the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, or shatterproof like the Motorola Moto Z Force Droid.

One thing that hasn't changed since the V10 is size. The V20 measures 6.3 by 3.1 by 0.3 inches (HWD) and weighs 6.2 ounces, about the same dimensions as the Apple iPhone 7 Plus (6.2 by 3.1 by 0.3 inches, 6.6 ounces) and the Google Pixel XL (6.1 by 3.0 by 0.3 inches, 5.9 ounces). There's a one-handed mode that resizes things onscreen to make apps easier to reach, but I still found the phone to be unwieldy compared with the S7 Edge (5.9 by 2.9 by 0.3 inches, 5.5 ounces), particularly when reaching for the secondary screen (more on that later).

The V20 has a removable battery, but it's not like the slide-out design of the G5 or the snap-off style of the V10. Instead, a battery cover release key on the right side of the phone pops the back panel off to gain access to the 3,200mAh cell inside. You'll also see a SIM card slot and a microSD card slot in there, the latter of which I tested successfully with a 256GB Samsung Evo+ card. There's no modular functionality, so you can't use any of the G5's "Friends" attachments, like the Cam Plus, but they haven't really caught on anyway.

DisplayThe most immediately notable feature on the front of the V20 is its always-on 2.1-inch, 160-by-1,040 "secondary" display, which you can find in the top right corner above the primary display. The small extension of the primary LCD functions much the same as it did on the V10, providing you with the time, date, notifications, and quick access to apps, tools, and camera controls (when the camera app is open). You can also pin apps of your choice to the secondary display, and use it to set a custom signature (now with more characters). While its functionality hasn't changed much, LG has made one huge improvement: the brightness and contrast have been increased so there are no visibility issues, which was one of our gripes with the V10. It makes the display infinitely more useful and functional, and I found myself using it fairly often to quickly launch apps when the main screen was off.

The primary display is a 5.7-inch, 2,560-by-1,440 IPS panel. The resolution works out to a super-crisp 513 pixels per inch. It gets very bright, has excellent viewing angles, and rich colors. You won't have any difficulty using it outdoors in direct sunlight. That said, the display runs a bit cool, with whites skewing toward blue when compared with the iPhone 7 Plus, though it isn't distracting (and not particularly noticeable without a side-by-side comparison).

Network PerformanceThe LG V20 is available the big four US carriers; I tested the T-Mobile version, which supports LTE bands 1/2/3/4/5/6/12/13/20, giving it strong network performance in midtown Manhattan. I recorded a top download speed of 16Mbps, and an unusually high upload speed of 30Mbps. The phone also supports Wi-Fi on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, NFC, and Bluetooth 4.2.

Call quality is mixed. Transmissions are somewhat garbled, and more background noise came through compared with other phones we've tested. But earpiece and speakerphone volume is loud, so I was able to hear everything no matter the environment.

Audio QualityI don't say this often, but the audio features here are particularly outstanding. The V20 has not one, not two, but four digital-to-analog converters (DACs) inside. Plugging headphones into the audio jack allows you to enable the Hi-Fi Quad DAC setting.

I'll admit to not being an audiophile, but even my untrained ear noticed a significant improvement in clarity and overall sound quality when I plugged in a pair of Plantronics Backbeat PRO 2 headphones. The lyrics and contours of bass-heavy metal came through with very little distortion. When playing games I could pick up on more subtle sounds, like whistling wind, distant sirens, and the shouts of passersby, all of which are normally lost on other phones. Naturally, if you're using Bluetooth playback you can't take advantage of this.

Audiophiles will be further pleased by 75-stage fine volume and L/R balance controls, as well as support for lossless music formats like AIFF, ALAC, DSD, and FLAC. In addition to playback, there's built-in HD audio recording, capable of capturing 24-bit/192kHz FLAC. For video, the V20's mic can record up to 132 decibels without clipping, rather than the 120 decibels most phones manage.

The bottom-firing mono speaker is loud, but not particularly impressive. It's the only average point in an otherwise fantastic audio experience.

Processor and BatteryThe V20 is powered a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor clocked at 2.15GHz and 4GB of RAM. It's not quite the Snapdragon 821 you'll find in the Google Pixel XL, but you can't really notice a major performance difference between the two. On the Geekbench benchmark, the V20 scores 1,590 in single-core performance and 3,290 in multi-core. That's not quite as high as the Pixel XL in either category (1,661/4,146), but real-world performance is virtually identical.

Multitasking is fast, and I found that using Nova Launcher and disabling animations makes things even faster. High-end gaming is not a problem; both GTA: San Andreas and Asphalt 8 ran beautifully, without any dropped frames or latency.

Battery life is the spot the V20 doesn't stand out. In our battery rundown test, in which we stream full-screen video over LTE with screen brightness at maximum, the phone clocked 4 hours and 38 minutes. That's lower than both the Pixel XL (6 hours, 43 minutes) and the S7 Edge (10 hours). That would be a bigger problem if it weren't for a couple of factors. The first is that always-on secondary display, which you can also turn off if you find it sucking down too much of your battery. The second is the fact that the battery is removable, so you can always carry a spare. And now that Samsung has gone sealed-in, the V20 is only flagship phone to feature a removable battery, which plenty of people still appreciate. The phone also supports fast charging, allowing you to reach a 30-percent charge in 20 minutes and a full charge in about an hour, but it doesn't support wireless charging.

CameraLike the G5, the V20 has two rear-facing camera sensors. One is a standard 16-megapixel camera with optical image stabilization, while the other is an 8-megapixel wide-angle lens that lets you take 135-degree shots of your surroundings. In daylight, the primary 16MP sensor takes crisp, clear shots with a fast laser-assisted autofocus. The facade of buildings, individual leaves in trees, and other fine details all come across naturally, free from the patches of noise or blur you'll find on less capable sensors.

But the real killer feature comes in the form of manual controls. The camera app lets you fine-tune white balance, exposure, shutter speed, aperture, and focus. In auto HDR mode, the V20 matches the Pixel XL and Galaxy S7 image quality in low-light settings. After tuning the exposure and shutter speed, it actually surpasses them. The best pictures I took were the ones that used manual adjustments, which is a feature that's lacking on most flagship phones.

Above: Regular lens

The secondary 8-megapixel sensor is also the same as the one on the G5. It's a fun feature that lets you take some cool utlra-wide angle shots of city streets, at the expense of noticeable barrel distortion. As you can see in the images above and below, however, it's a nifty effect. The 5-megapixel front-facing camera also has a wide-angle mode (albeit at a slightly lower 120-degree angle). Pictures taken with it are clear and autoexposure is good.

Above: Ultra-wide angle lens

Video recording is also solid, netting smooth 1080p footage at 60fps and 4K footage at 30fps using the rear camera. In addition to optical image stabilization (OIS), the V20 also uses electronic image stabilization (EIS), a gyroscope, and post-processing to make objects appear in the same position between frames. Walking down a long hallway in PCMag's New York office, video footage appeared steady, even when my hand was purposefully shaky.

To test tracking focus, I recorded a busy street and locked onto a person walking. The camera was able to maintain focus as they moved. I did the same with a fast moving car and got a similar result.

SoftwareThe LG V20 is the first non-Pixel phone to launch running Android 7.0 Nougat, though it comes with LG's heavy UI layer on top. The icons, notification shade, and settings menu have all undergone some major changes, and there's no app drawer. That won't please Android purists, but you do have the option of restoring the app drawer using a built-in setting or a third-party launcher. As mentioned above, I ended up using Nova Launcher. Unfortunately, LG hasn't said whether the phone will support Google's Daydream VR.

Aside from the features we've already touched on, the V20 also supports features like double tapping to wake the screen. There's a blue light filter for night viewing, and a built-in Smart Cleaner that cleans the cache to free up storage space.

On the T-Mobile version of the phone I tested, there are seven preloaded T-Mobile apps, four LG apps, and Amazon, Evernote, Lookout, and Facebook. Most of it can be uninstalled, and you end up with 48.66GB of available storage out of a total of 64GB. Fortunately, a microSD card is always an option, unlike the Pixel XL, but it doesn't support Android's Adoptable Storage feature.

ConclusionsThe LG V20 is a fantastic phablet, no matter which carrier you choose. That said, the differences in carrier pricing make it difficult to give the phone a universal rating. At $672, the V20 is easily the best big phone for the price, coming in at around $100 less than the Galaxy S7 Edge and the Pixel XL. At $829.99 it's no less powerful, if not quite as strong of a deal.

The Pixel XL gets you a phone with the latest processor, guaranteed Android updates, 24/7 support, and an intelligent voice assistant. With the S7 Edge you get a beautiful glass-and-metal build, waterproofing, and much longer battery life with wireless charging. The V20 offers military-standard drop resistance, a removable battery, a genuinely useful "secondary" screen for notifications, and unbeatable audio quality for wired listening. I wish it had better battery life, and a cleaner build of Android. If it did, it would be a shoo-in for our Editors' Choice. As it stands, the S7 Edge is just slightly more well-rounded, and remains our top pick.

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About the Author

Ajay Kumar is PCMag's Analyst obsessed with all things mobile. Ajay reviews phones, tablets, accessories, and just about any other gadget that can be carried around with you. In his spare time he games on the rig he built himself, collects Nintendo amiibos, and tries his hand at publishing a novel. Follow Ajay on Twitter @Ajay_H_Kumar. See Full Bio